4 ms·

Sometimes closed source software gets open sourced for business reasons, and backed by a big consortium, rather than being written from the ground up by hobbyis

Sometimes closed source software gets open sourced for business reasons, and backed by a big consortium, rather than being written from the ground up by hobbyists. I wonder if big aerospace and defense companies like Boeing, and automakers, and heavy industry, and so on, might decide it's in their interests to collectively buy and open-source an existing commercial CAD package rather than risk being held hostage to the vendors that gatekeep their engineering.

paddy_m 5y ago
Dassault Systems was spun off from the european fighter plane manufacturer with the same name. They bought up solidworks and Catia and runs as a standalone business. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Syst%C3%A8mes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Syst%C3%A8mes
- nickpinkston 5y ago
  Yea, I believe most (all?) CAD systems are spin outs from industrial programs. Pierre Bezier (of the curve) was actually an automotive engineer at Renault as they were trying to better define shapes.
  - agumonkey 5y ago
    here's a short but fun bit with bezier unisurf system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_a6r2JaWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_a6r2JaWQ
nickpinkston 5y ago
I think the companies want an independent for-profit maintaining the business because they don't trust the dynamics of open source / non-profit to actually provide good products/services. Which I think is actually a reasonable argument given the issues in my OP. I wish the FTC, etc. tweaked how the CAD industry was handled to increase competition / decreasing switching costs, etc. This relates to them preventing people from being in their equivalent of the "app store" which Dassault has been particularly aggressive about.
cogburnd02 5y ago
BRL-CAD was created by the US Army Research Laboratory (then the Ballistic Research Laboratory, hence 'BRL') and was released in 1984, and became free software in 2004. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRL-CAD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRL-CAD
- zokier 5y ago
  BRL-CAD is fascinating in how different it is from ux point of view. It is almost like a window to alternative universe where old fashioned UNIX and CLI won with interesting mix of graphics.
bobsmooth 5y ago
I wonder how much it would cost to open source AutoCAD or Solidworks lol. Blender was only $100k.
mywittyname 5y ago
> I wonder if big aerospace and defense companies like Boeing, and automakers, and heavy industry, and so on, might decide it's in their interests to collectively buy and open-source an existing commercial CAD package rather than risk being held hostage to the vendors that gatekeep their engineering. I doubt it. The vendor/client relationship is a lot more collaborative and symbiotic than most people would think. I'm not sure about Boeing specifically, but I do know that their competitors work very closely with their CAD vendors. Part of the contracted agreement is to have a software team on the vendor side work with the engineering team on the design side to produce essentially a custom fork of the software. On one hand, yeah, the CAD vendor could play hardball and hold a client hostage. But on the other hand, there are only so many Boeings out there. So if you push them away, that revenue will be hard to replace. Most likely situation is the one that's played out a few times before: acquire your vendor.

paddy_m 5y ago

Dassault Systems was spun off from the european fighter plane manufacturer with the same name. They bought up solidworks and Catia and runs as a standalone business. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Syst%C3%A8mes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Syst%C3%A8mes

nickpinkston 5y ago
Yea, I believe most (all?) CAD systems are spin outs from industrial programs. Pierre Bezier (of the curve) was actually an automotive engineer at Renault as they were trying to better define shapes.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  here's a short but fun bit with bezier unisurf system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_a6r2JaWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_a6r2JaWQ

nickpinkston 5y ago

I think the companies want an independent for-profit maintaining the business because they don't trust the dynamics of open source / non-profit to actually provide good products/services. Which I think is actually a reasonable argument given the issues in my OP. I wish the FTC, etc. tweaked how the CAD industry was handled to increase competition / decreasing switching costs, etc. This relates to them preventing people from being in their equivalent of the "app store" which Dassault has been particularly aggressive about.

cogburnd02 5y ago

BRL-CAD was created by the US Army Research Laboratory (then the Ballistic Research Laboratory, hence 'BRL') and was released in 1984, and became free software in 2004. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRL-CAD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRL-CAD

zokier 5y ago
BRL-CAD is fascinating in how different it is from ux point of view. It is almost like a window to alternative universe where old fashioned UNIX and CLI won with interesting mix of graphics.

bobsmooth 5y ago

I wonder how much it would cost to open source AutoCAD or Solidworks lol. Blender was only $100k.

mywittyname 5y ago

> I wonder if big aerospace and defense companies like Boeing, and automakers, and heavy industry, and so on, might decide it's in their interests to collectively buy and open-source an existing commercial CAD package rather than risk being held hostage to the vendors that gatekeep their engineering. I doubt it. The vendor/client relationship is a lot more collaborative and symbiotic than most people would think. I'm not sure about Boeing specifically, but I do know that their competitors work very closely with their CAD vendors. Part of the contracted agreement is to have a software team on the vendor side work with the engineering team on the design side to produce essentially a custom fork of the software. On one hand, yeah, the CAD vendor could play hardball and hold a client hostage. But on the other hand, there are only so many Boeings out there. So if you push them away, that revenue will be hard to replace. Most likely situation is the one that's played out a few times before: acquire your vendor.